Ford gave its aluminum-production system a dry run at Jaguar starting in 2003 with the XJ sedan and then took what it learned back to Dearborn and deployed it in the lightweight 2015 F-150.RICHARD TRUETT: Jaguar Land Rover, Mazda and Volvo all have something in common today besides the fact that they were once owned or controlled by Ford Motor Co.
All three are starting to blossom again now that they have developed their own unique vehicle architectures, powertrains and technologies, and as Ford-based hardware ages out of production.
This is not to say that Ford was a bad corporate parent. In man ...Continue reading "Whatever happens with a takeover, automakers always learn something" »()Post Comment | Permalink

So February U.S. auto sales came in lower than the forecasters figured just a week or two ago. Well yeah! Snow days.
Mid-month, most prognosticators were clustered between a 16.6 million and 16.7 million seasonally adjusted annual selling rate, up 8 or 9 percent from February 2014.
But storms socked in the Midwest and East last weekend, the peak selling days of the month. So the SAAR ended up at ...Continue reading "In February snow, buyers want 4x4s" »()Post Comment | Permalink

GENEVA -- In one of those uncanny coincidences, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met at the Hotel President Wilson here Monday to discuss the ceasefire in the Ukraine.
A few hours later, Ford Motor Co. held its pre-Geneva show reception at the same hotel. Jim Farley, newly installed as head of Ford of Europe, vowed that the loss-making unit is “g ...Continue reading "Ford, Farley hope for success in U.S.-Russian diplomacy" »()Post Comment | Permalink

Automakers don’t overreact to international tensions and currency fluctuations. They’re playing the long game, making decisions that many times will be in place for decades.
That’s why the comments coming from auto execs on the verge of the Geneva auto show are so striking. They indicate that, behind the hoopla and posturing at the show, automakers are pondering how two mega-iss ...Continue reading "Russia, weak euro form backdrop for Geneva show" »()Post Comment | Permalink

Toyota is painstakingly building the Mirai fuel cell sedan. Thirteen workers churn out just three cars a day. (BLOOMBERG)HANS GREIMEL: TOKYO -- Would you buy a car if you had to wait two years for delivery? That’s what Toyota Motor Corp. is asking its customers to do with its Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.
It appears the futuristic car is a victim of its own success.
The car has been on sale in Japan only since Dec. 15. But orders are already pushing 2,000 units, an executive involved with the project said. That’ ...Continue reading "Could Toyota Mirai's hot demand and 2-year backlog undermine its success?" »()Post Comment | Permalink

DETROIT -- He’s not yet taking orders from Jay Leno for the Ford GT and GT350R, but Dave Pericak still has a full plate.
The director of Ford Performance related some juicy details to a rapt Automotive Press Association audience today at the Detroit Athletic Club, fleshing out what the December consolidation of Ford Motor’s various racing and performance operations means for go-fast e ...Continue reading "Why does Ford race? Because it can " »()Post Comment | Permalink

Yutaka Katayama, Nissan's first U.S. president, is seen with the Datsun 240Z. (NISSAN)JAMIE LAREAU: “If I had a Z … ”
That’s the opening line to the car commercial that I most remember from my youth. It touted the Nissan 300ZX sports car.
So I’m melancholy after hearing that the man behind the car, Yutaka Katayama, died last week at age 105.
Mr. K, as Katayama was popularly known, was Nissan’s first U.S president. He was dubbed the father of the Z. He intr ...Continue reading "The dream Mr. K offered in the Nissan 300ZX is alive and well" »()Post Comment | Permalink

A letter sent last week by the American Financial Services Association and other trade associations to Richard Cordray, director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, was aimed at prodding the CFPB to publicly respond to a study AFSA commissioned last year.
“There certainly has been more than enough time for them to address some of the issues,” Chris Stinebert, CEO of AFSA, tol ...Continue reading "Lender groups want answers from the CFPB" »()Post Comment | Permalink

Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen shows off the Cadillac ATS-V. (GM)RICHARD TRUETT: DETROIT -- An open letter to Cadillac boss Johan de Nysschen:
Fixing Cadillac will be the biggest challenge of your career, a far larger task, even, than breathing new life into Audi.
My brother is a perfect example why.
He’s 42 and a current -- and very satisfied -- owner of a General Motors product. He’s a voracious reader of automotive publications. He can easily afford an ATS, C ...Continue reading "De Nysschen, 'Dare' I say, needs a better plan to rebuild Caddy's image" »()Post Comment | Permalink

Cadillac boss Johan de Nysschen couldn't respond to all of the questions, but he answered many -- and gave it back to some of the smart alecks.OMARI GARDNER: Jalopnik beckoned its readers this afternoon to “Ask Cadillac President de Nysschen anything.” They were more than happy to oblige.
A day after Cadillac’s “Dare Greatly” advertising campaign showcasing the new top-of-the-line CT6 debuted during the Oscars broadcast, the oft-irreverent auto industry Web log scored an hour of the Caddy boss’ time -- a rare opport ...Continue reading "A no-holds-barred online Q&A with Cadillac boss Johan de Nysschen" »()Post Comment | Permalink

The RAM letters are a stunning 5 inches tall on the tailgate.LARRY P. VELLEQUETTE: It’s been nearly two months since I got my first up-close looks at the Ram Rebel and Ram Laramie Limited — the two trims Fiat Chrysler’s truck brand rolled out at this year’s auto shows in Detroit and Chicago.
Like a lot of armchair critics online, I’m not a fan of the styling of the two pickups’ front fascias and tailgates, but I’ve developed a theory as ...Continue reading "Is an identity crisis the reason behind the Ram pickup's new styling?" »()Post Comment | Permalink

TOKYO -- It took more than half a century, but one of Japan’s biggest Toyota dealers just passed a major milestone.
Nagoya Toyopet Corp. sold its 2 millionth new Toyota vehicle on Feb. 16, making it the first independent retailer from Japan’s top manufacturer to reach that rarified stratosphere.
The company, run by CEO Kazuo Oguri, started selling Toyotas back in 1956, when few Japan ...Continue reading "Japan Toyota dealer hits 2 million milestone" »()Post Comment | Permalink

There wasn’t much doubt, but General Motors disclosed for the first time in an SEC filing on Feb. 4 that it is considering plans to throw all Chevrolet lease incentives to GM Financial instead of sharing them among GM Financial, Ally Financial and U.S. Bank.
GM Financial became GM’s exclusive preferred lease lender for the Buick and GMC brands this month and will take over those dutie ...Continue reading "GM Financial-Chevy lease exclusivity seems likely" »()Post Comment | Permalink

You know it is a seller’s market when the seller can dictate all the shots, and I mean all the shots.
I was speaking to a buy-sell adviser this week, who shared an unsolicited anecdote because this adviser was so awe struck by it.
The adviser asked not to be identified, but here is the story: A buyer approached the owner of two dealerships, out of the blue, with an offer in the “tens ...Continue reading "Buyers make big bets on dealerships in a seller's world" »()Post Comment | Permalink

The biggest issue for Hyundai and other automakers is figuring out how to make and sell fuel cell vehicles profitably. (BLOOMBERG)RICHARD TRUETT: CHICAGO -- The valet at the Hyatt Regency hotel rolls up in the hydrogen-fueled Hyundai Tucson and opens the front doors for me and a Hyundai communications executive. Pleasantries are exchanged and then we glide away silently into 10 degree winter weather.
If the valet noticed that he was driving the future, he didn’t mention it. Indeed, looking at the Tucson fuel cell vehicle, you wouldn& ...Continue reading "Have no fear, Hyundai cracks the fuel-cell code" »()Post Comment | Permalink

Eight rare Corvettes were swallowed up by the sinkhole.GRAHAM KOZAK: It was just over one year ago that a massive sinkhole appeared on the floor of the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Ky.
Though eight rare Corvettes were swallowed up by the sinkhole, the 20-year-old museum turned the headline-grabbing disaster into a publicity bonanza: Attendance was up 67 percent year-over-year, and the museum seems well-positioned to come out of the whole affair stand ...Continue reading "National Corvette Museum -- a year after the sinkhole" »()Post Comment | Permalink

I know some of you will accuse me of heresy against a Higher Power for saying it, but I don’t like Apple. Never have.
That’s why talk that Apple might jump into the car business leaves me not only nonplused but giggling at the thought of how the world’s richest company would translate its current business practices from phones to automobiles.
Let’s dispense with these in ...Continue reading "Thanks, but no thanks, to an Apple car" »()Post Comment | Permalink

Charles Child is news editor for Automotive News.CHARLES CHILD: So if media reports are true, Apple wants to join Google in the car business.
Apple, please resist -- for your own good.
It wasn’t so long ago that the Detroit 3 lurched from one diversification project to another. Chrysler, for instance, built corporate jets in the 1980s when it owned Gulfstream. And General Motors manufactured refrigerators with Frigidaire until 1979.
But the automakers ...Continue reading "Resist the temptation, Apple: Cars are a tricky proposition" »()Post Comment | Permalink

The Athabasca Oil Sands near Fort McMurray, Alberta. Fewer new-car sales are expected in Canada's oil-producing provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador. (BLOOMBERG)JAMES B. TREECE: TORONTO -- In the U.S., the drop in oil prices is seen as a boost for most of the economy, with some localized pain in the oil patch.
Here in Canada, the view is reversed.
The media drumbeat has been that resource-rich Canada is going to take a major hit from lower oil and gas receipts. The Toronto Stock Exchange index collapsed in September, when oil prices did, and again in December, although ...Continue reading "North of U.S. border, mixed blessings from oil's skid" »()Post Comment | Permalink

TORONTO -- The auto shows I’ve covered repeatedly for Automotive News are major global shows: Detroit, Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai. I’ve also been to Chicago, New York, Geneva, Seoul and Frankfurt, but not often or recently enough to really know them.
At these global shows, other reporters and I flock to global debuts and chances to interview the bosses of the world’s largest au ...Continue reading "In praise of consumer-focused auto shows" »()Post Comment | Permalink